Video: Utilizing Melodyne with your DAW through ReWire

Now let's look at another way that we can use Melodyne in conjunction with our DAW. Let's look at how to set up ReWire. So first make sure that Pro Tools and Melodyne are both quit, because we're going to use a different method of connecting the two, and if they're not quit it may not function properly. So let's first open Pro Tools, we're going to open our Girl Got Attitude Pro Tools session. And once the session is open, we're going to go to our Mixer, and on our Lead 1a track, we're going to choose plug-in > Instrument > Melodyne, and this is going to launch Melodyne, and we're going to choose ReWire from the pop-up that says, How would you like to connect Melodyne to the running host application. So we're choosing to connect Melodyne via ReWire with Pro Tools, in this case--or our DAW as the host. and once Melodyne finishes loading we can then open our Melodyne session file, I'm going to switch to the Finder, go to our Melodyne folder and open our Girl Got Attitude_01_01 Melodyne project file, I'm going to switch back to Pro Tools, and in the ReWire plug-in I'm going to choose the output for Channel 1 on Lead vocal 1a.

In this course, producer and engineer Skye Lewin reveals the techniques that professional musicians and producers use to get the best-sounding results from Melodyne. The course covers digital audio workstation (DAW) and session preparation, and shows how to perform rhythm and pitch corrections on both lead and background vocals. It includes lessons on importing and exporting tracks between the DAW and the standalone version of Melodyne, as well as utilizing Melodyne as a plug-in, through ReWire, and through Melodyne Bridge. Skye also shows how to use a MIDI keyboard to edit the pitch of a recorded performance in Melodyne and how to trigger a MIDI instrument using an audio recording.

Utilizing Melodyne with your DAW through ReWire

Now let's look at another way that we can use Melodyne in conjunction with our DAW.Let's look at how to set up ReWire.So first make sure that Pro Tools and Melodyne are both quit, because we're going to usea different method of connecting the two, and if they're not quit it may not function properly.So let's first open Pro Tools, we're going to open our Girl Got Attitude Pro Tools session.And once the session is open, we're going to go to our Mixer, and on our Lead 1a track,we're going to choose plug-in > Instrument > Melodyne, and this is going to launch Melodyne, andwe're going to choose ReWire from the pop-up that says, How would you like to connect Melodyneto the running host application. So we're choosing to connect Melodyne via ReWire withPro Tools, in this case--or our DAW as the host. and once Melodyne finishes loading we canthen open our Melodyne session file, I'm going to switch to the Finder, go to our Melodynefolder and open our Girl Got Attitude_01_01 Melodyne project file, I'm going to switchback to Pro Tools, and in the ReWire plug-in I'm going to choose the output for Channel 1on Lead vocal 1a.

Now if this is connected properly, when I press Play in Pro Tools, Melodyne will also play,so let's take a look at that. (music playing)Now we can see it works.Now likewise, I should be able to stop it like I just did for Melodyne or also press Playin Melodyne and Pro Tools is also playing, and we can check out how this works by goingto our Transport window in Melodyne with Shift+Command+T on a Mac or Shift+Ctrl+T on Windows, and inthe bottom left-hand corner where we find the Sync option, you should see Link Transportto ReWire Host checked, and this means that the transport from both Melodyne and the ReWirehost, or Pro Tools in this example, are linked so that I can control play back from either application.

I am going to go back to Pro Tools Mixer, and I'm going to assign ReWire outputs tothe other Lead vocal 1 tracks.So again I'm going to ungroup Shift+Command+G or Shift+Ctrl+G.Another option is just to disable the one group that you need out of the way so thatyou can simply select the three tracks that you want to work with.In this case Lead Vocal 1b, C, and D, we're going to hold Shift+Option or Shift+Alt, andassign plug-in > Instrument > Melodyne to those other four tracks, it's going to pop-up ourMelodyne session again real quick.

We're going to switch back to Pro Tools and on our 1b track we're going to assign Channel2, 1c we'll assign to Channel 3, and 1d we'll assign to Channel 4.So now we have Lead Vocal 1a, B, C, and D all communicating with tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Melodyne.Now let's get our audio into Melodyne.So the first thing you'll need to do is in your DAW finish your comp and have a singleaudio file that represents the entire COMP to vocal, which in this case we have alreadydone, so these four files are what we're going to import into Melodyne.

Now you can either choose those four files directly from your Audio Files folder, whichin this case, will be in our Girl Got Attitude Pro Tools session file, Audio Files at thebottom of the list we'll see Lead 1a COMP, Lead 1b COMP, et cetera, and we could importthose audio files into Melodyne.Now if you don't want to use the files in your Pro Tools folder for some reason or ifyou want work off of a different driver, for whatever reason you want to separate the two,you could instead choose to export the audio from Pro Tools. You can export from Pro Toolsusing Shift+Command+K or Shift+Ctrl+K, and select the File Type, the Format, the BitDepth et cetera, choose where you want to save the files and export those files, andthen you can import those files into Melodyne.

But for the purposes of this course I'm just going to use the ones that are in the AudioFile folder that we don't to have two copies and use twice as much disk space.So let's go back to Melodyne, and I'm going to use the key command for Import Audio File,which is by default Shift+Command+O or Shift+Ctrl+O, I'm going to go into my Pro Tools sessionfolder for Girl Got Attitude into the Audio Files folder, and I'm going to select thefour tracks that we found earlier Lead 1a COMP through Lead 1d COMP, and I'm going to choose Open.I can leave the default of Open region selected, which will include any user timestamps, youcan also choose Open entire file, but it won't read the user timestamp. In this case it'snot really necessary, and I'm going to choose OK and Melodyne is going to import each ofthose four files one at a time, and it's going to detect the pitch on each file as it doesit, so it can take a minute.

If you have a lot of files that you're importing this way, it'll take a little bit more time.One thing to note is that if you're using the exercise files instead of creating yourown session from scratch, Melodyne won't detect the audio as it imports, because the MDD filesalready exist in the exercise files.You will notice in this case, Melodyne is warning us that the session file has a different tempothan the audio that we're working with.So in this case, our Pro Tools session and our song is at 122 beats per minute, but ourMelodyne session file is still set to 120 beats per minute, so we don't want to stretchthe audio in this case, but in another instance you might, but for now let's click Keep.

After we finish importing the rest of this audio, we should change the tempo in Melodyneto match the tempo in Pro Tools.So we'll click OK on each of the files, let them detect the pitch and finish opening.So now that we have imported all four of those tracks, let's correct our tempo so that itmatches our Pro Tools session.So we're going to open the Transport Bar, we'll Shift+Command+T or Shift+Ctrl+T.Now we're going to change our tempo to the correct setting of 122 beats per minute, thenyou can hit Return to set that, and now any further audio that we import will not warnus to keep the tempo or stretch the tempo to match.

So now we have audio in our Melodyne session, and we can begin working.One of the benefits to using this method, as well as the MelodyneBridge method, is thatyou can listen to your mix through your DAW's mixer, in other words, if you have any plug-insor any level settings in your Pro Tools session or your logic session or whatever your DAWis you'll listen to that instead of what you hear only through Melodyne's mixer.One of the downsides, again, is that you only have eight channels that you can use to communicatewith your DAW. And in this case, we're going to use a different workflow for the rest ofthis course, because we're going to be working with a lot more than eight channels at a timethat we want to be able to manipulate in the same session at the same time.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.